Verboten
by ReignitedN7
Summary: Love and hate transcends the sexes and species, but will their love survive together amongst those who fight to keep them apart? Human(f)/Turian(m) OCs. Rating expected to change. Mild interaction with ME cast.
1. Chapter 1

**The world of Mass Effect and it's aliens do not belong to me. This story follows along the ME3 timeline.**

 **The characters Argos Meridius, Antonia Capello, Aiden Mathes and Nubia T'au belong to me.**

 **I am searching for an ME Beta-PM if interested!**

 **Enjoy and please review!**

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"Excuse me?"

Petty-Officer Antonia Capello didn't register the soft voice from across her desk. Heavy lidded cobalt eyes remained glued to the terminal screen in front of her. At one point, the names that scrawled across the screen had become illegible, coming in faster than Antonia could keep up with. The names were batarian at first, due to the Alpha Relay explosion two months ago, and as of a week ago, turian names had joined the list. Every so often, asari, human and krogan names would show up from affected co-habitated colonies. Sparse, but there.

As of 0734 GST, reports poured in that Earth had been attacked. Luna base was lost within an hour.

It would be a matter of days before the human refugee shuttles arrive from Earth.

William Baker was the first human name from Earth she caught before it scrolled away into extranet oblivion.

Who was William Baker? Where on Earth did he live? Was he married? Does he have children? Did they make it out alive?

Or did he die alone?

 _"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door..."_

" _Ahem."_

The datapad that was thrown down beside her jolted Antonia from her thoughts. She turned her attention to the asari across from her desk. The asari in question had her attention directed at the person who slammed the data pad down. Antonia followed the asari's line of sight, looking up into a pair of mismatched, scowling eyes. She blinked twice.

 _Damn it._

Kabalim Argos Meridius was a hard turian to look at; beyond the norm that humans usually associated with. The white clan marking stood against the dark grey platings of his face. Their patterns, so clean and precise on his right, were lost on his left along with one of his bright green eyes. Heavy cracks lined his fringe and cheek plates, while his left mandible had missing structural pieces and resembled more of a stump limb than a sharp and sleep appendage. Rumor had it, during the First Contact War, as a child he fell on a landmine and blew half his face and left side off in order to protect his father.

"Kabalim." Antonia spoke quietly as she acknowledged her super. His eyes narrowed down at her. The turians demeanor was scathing. Arms folded across his chest and shoulders slightly raised, his dark metallic hyde gleamed under the false light of the refugee ward.

"Welcome back to the world of the living," he mocked her and gestured towards the asari. "This citizen has been waiting patiently for you to pull your head out of your ass," Antonia's eyes flicked over to the asari and then back to Argos. Before she could open her mouth to give an explanation another officer, an asari, walked up to her desk.

Antonia had to suppress the groan in her throat as she recognized who the officer was.

Lieutenant Nubia T'au had once been Antonia's patrol partner up until her recent promotion. The asari wasn't much of a socialite, nor was she unfriendly. Polite at best. But at the time of their transfer from the Zakera wards to the refugee camps, her primary goal was to score it in with the commanding Kabalim.

When the universe is falling to shit, you gun for the guy with the most guns, or in Argos case, the strongest biotics. What might have been a fragile friendship between the two female officers broke at Nubia's advancement pinning ceremony.

"Can I be of service?"

The citizen asari looked between the three officers and visibly cowered as they waited for her reply.

"I-I just wanted to know if my cousin checked in. From Tiptree." she rushed her sentence and then covered her mouth with her blue hands. Antonia wanted to kick herself for not noticing the asari earlier. From the looks of the blue woman's trembling lips and wide glossy eyes, she was clearly in distress. How long had her cousin been missing?

"Of course mam. Could I get-"

"Mam," Nubia cut in. "I'm happy to take care of your needs over here at my desk," she smiled sweetly at the citizen and placed a hand on the other asari. She gestured towards the desk across the bay. "I apologize for my coworker. We just learned this morning that the human homeworld was attacked,"

The citizen nodded. Although they had walked a few feet away, Nubia made sure to raise her voice enough to be heard.

"Humans are emotional creatures," she sneered. Antonia attempted to school her face to that of impassive but couldn't help it from pursing her lips and clenching her teeth together. "I'm sure after a good cry, Officer Capello will be back to her normal boring self." Nubia cut her eyes at Antonia as they began to walk away, but not before turning to placate Argos with a charming flash of white teeth.

The Kabalim ignored her.

Instead he rapped a talon on the desk.

"I suspect that the work is too demanding for you, Capello?" Argos eyed the human before him. Antonia assumed that he was frowning at her by the way his eyebrow plates had shifted closer together and the mandibles at his mouth drew slightly out and downward. Then again, Antonia hadn't been around many turians before.

"No at all Sir," she replied carefully. "I aim to be diligent in my work..."

Argos exhaled forcefully through his nose; almost like a human snort. His mismatched eyes moved to looked beyond where she sat.

"And you, Mathes?" he barked. Antonia looked over her shoulder to where her current partner, a human man named Aiden Mathes, sat. She had only met him earlier this week.

Aiden didn't look away from his screen or type work, but nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"Just doing my job sir."

Argos grunted again and seemingly accepted the answer. For a moment, Antonia hoped that the turian would finally move on, but he pinned her again with a glare.

"After shift, my office." Antonia nodded mutely and watched as Argos snatched up his datapad. He turned his back to her and walked away with his head shaking. When she felt like he was out of earshot, and for turians that's a bit of a long range, she swore.

"Feel better?" Aiden took his hands off his keyboard and folded them on his desk space. Antonia shot him a mild glare before lightly smacking his shoulder.

"You could have warned me,"

"I did-" he cleared his throat and batted his eyelashes at her. " _Ahem."_

"Funny." Antonia couldn't help but smile. She took the opportunity give Aiden a quick and discreet once over. Light brown hair neatly combed to one side, slightly rounded face with a strong chin and a set of perfectly straight white teeth that made his smile dazzle. His warm brown eyes seemed to smile at her before darting across the room.

He was watching the Kabalim move from desk to desk, checking in on his subordinates and a few refugees that past by him.

"So...Antonia?" he began with a smile but still focused on the Kabalim. "Can I call you Toni? Or do you prefer the whole Antonia?"

"Toni is fine,"

"Great. I like it...it suits you."

Another pause.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into...whatever that was," she waved her hand in the air. "Kabalim hadn't been to pleased when I was assigned to him," she apologized. Antonia had originally been an at the Earth Embassy back on the Presidium. She had been working there for the past four years. Occasionally, she was on patrol duty in the lower wards with Nubia, but her primary job was to assist human civilians at the embassy.

"It's fine. I honestly can't say I've ever seen the guy smile..but then again,how can you really tell?" Antonia smiled politely while not entirely sure if he was being sarcastic or not. The First Contact war may have been a little over thirty years ago, but it was still too soon for some humans and turians. "He's hard to work with at best."

Antonia hummed in response. She really didn't want to say more, lest wandering ears listened in. Particularly blue ones.

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The quote above was by Emma Lazarus.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, hello!

 **I do not own the Mass Effect universe and it's aliens.**

I do own Antonia Capello, Argos Meridius, Aiden Mathes and Nubia T'Au.

Shoutout to lyricsaboutcats for being my first reviewer! Much love and appreciation! 3

Enjoy and review 3

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Antonia let out a loud sigh as she powered down her terminal. The orange screen flickered before disappearing and created a small empty window across her desk. She watched as refugees wandered aimlessly through the docking bay; some lost, some in mourning, most in a complete state of shock.

The rest remained silent and empty.

But today was day one for Earth. How many more will come tomorrow?

Their docking bay staffed a handful of doctors and medics for the wounded while C-Sec took care of sorting through processing and documenting each refugee. They've also started a list of deceased for those who come looking for family.

"Did..is your family...did they make it out ok?"

Antonia was startled from her thoughts for the second time that day. Aiden had stepped away from their shared desk a few hours ago to assist a human refugee. She hadn't noticed his return.

"I haven't heard from my mother yet," Antonia replied softly. She honestly didn't know if her mom was still on Earth-they hadn't spoken in ten years. "My dad, his wife, and their kid lives here on the Citadel, few doors down from me. What about you?"

"My family comes from Terra Nova. Haven't heard from them in a while." Aiden paused his typing again and watched the list of names scroll on his terminal. "This is actually happening. I mean...it didn't really register with me, even with Palaven being attacked."

Antonia remained silent. She herself couldn't fully process that her homeworld was being attacked. He brought up his left arm and typed a code into his omnitool that brought up a picture of two young boys. "I've got twin little brothers. Alex and Adam. They'll be ten soon."

Antonia leaned over to get a better view of the brothers. She was mildly impressed. Twins were extremely rare in 2186; an age where genetic testing and selection is a standard in prenatal care. Most human families stick with one child.

Both boys looked like little carbon copies of their older brother.

"Twins?"

"Yeah. Mom went old fashioned," he chuckled and set his omnitool back to sleep mode. "Couldn't make it to the post medical clinic. Both boys were delivered in the back of dad's motorcade!" Aiden face pinched in a cringe as he clearly recalled his siblings entrance to the universe. Antonia laughed.

Aiden made a mental note to make his partner laugh more often. It sounded like a bell.

"My little sister will be ten soon too," Antonia smiled fondly. "Her name is Alana." standing, Antonia gathered her work belongings and reached under desk for her rucksack.

"Time to face the music?" They both knew what was coming next. Aiden watched as his partner rolled her shoulders and stashed her data pad in her rucksack. His eyes watched her worry and chew at her bottom lip.

"Till the fat lady sings."

He reached out and placed a light hand on her shoulder. She stiffened and looked at his hand before looking to his face. Seeing the discomfort, Aiden quickly let go.

"Sorry." he offered. Antonia watched moment more before throwing her rucksack over the same shoulder; effectively creating a wall between them. Aiden opened his mouth to question her, but was cut off.

"It's fine," she said. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Hopefully so."

Aiden raised his hand to wave but stopped mid way when Antonia turned her back on him.

 _Strange woman._

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 **Do Not Terminate.**

 **Do Not Terminate.**

 **Do Not Terminate.**

Every. Single. File. Every single document. Every single transcript.

 **Do Not Terminate.**

His single green eye glared at the smiling human on his terminal screen. It took every ounce of discipline to keep him from throwing it at the wall.

The human subordinate, Antonia Capello, had no place on his team. None.

"Who do they think she is?" he sneered to himself. The 'who' he referred to was C-Sec chain of command, but beyond so. A quick background check on the human female taught him that she enlisted in the Alliance at the legal age of eighteen. She served four years in the Alliance Coast Guard before moving her family to the Citadel. Further investigation told him that her father was also retired military and currently apart of C-Sec; at the Earth Embassy on the Presidium. He was a few pay grades higher than her. Father and daughter worked along side together at the embassy before she was transferred to Argos' team.

Yet there was no papertrail in her transfer that might indicate possible influence from her father.

The only recognizable name on her papertrail was Anita Goyle-the first human councillor. He met her briefly during his bodyguard duty to the turian councilor, but anything said between them was lost on him. She had nothing interesting to say or he simply didn't care. It wasn't long before she was replaced by the current human councilor, Donnel Udina.

Clearly though, Goyle still had some political pull, since her signature was legal notoriety on his subordinate's transfer.

But WHY?

He admitted that a prior four year tour in the military to six years in C-Sec services was no sign of a rookie. Records still hold her as having one of the highest testing scores at the academy.

But she was small for human standards. Painfully small. Argos couldn't recall ever seeing an adult human in general with her height. How did she pass combat training at the academy? Let alone any military standards?

Substandard height.

Substandard body weight.

No clear genetic advantages.

Intelligence slightly above average.

He had yet to see her in combat, let alone line of duty apart from pushing papers.

And yet the one thing that struck him hard at his side...was she was the single officer on his team...who was not a biotic.

His omnitool beeped an incoming call.

Antonia stood in front of the door to the Kabalim's office. She stood there for what felt like hours. Earlier in her mind, she saw herself walk right into his office and get the answer straight forward: why did he hate her so much?

For the most part, she had a pretty good idea why she might not be his favorite. A non biotic on an elite biotics team was a pretty big strike against her; but it wasn't like she asked to be transferred to his team. Working with refugees, sure, but in customs. Not biotics.

And she wasn't blue...but she kept that particular thought to herself.

But before she could wave her ID over the red hologram lock, a sound came through the door. It was a familiar sound, one that every species had the capability of making. A sound that resounded throughout the bay since the Reaper invasions started.

It was the sound of anguish.

"Staring off into deep space, again?"

Antonia felt as if time itself slowed down. She didn't react fast enough to stop Nubia from swiping her own ID across the hologram lock. She couldn't stop the automatic doors from flying open. She couldn't move her feet to turn around and run away. Her hands locked on the straps of her rucksack.

 _Ah._ Her mind inquired. _Turians_ can _cry._

"Kabalim?" Antonia questioned softly.

"Get. OUT."

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 **Author's note:**

Apparently, in the world of Mass Effect, women's standard height was around 5'10". Toni is 5'5". Just to clear that up a bit. I'll explain why later...


End file.
